CLARK FREEPORT – The 5.7 percent inflation last July should be enough to convince the Duterte government that its TRAIN law is to blame.
“Inflation had been relatively low in the last three years until the Duterte administration implemented its TRAIN law which increased prices overnight and drove inflation higher for seven straight months now,” Anakpawis Partylist Rep. Ariel Casilao said in a statement yesterday.
He cited a study indicating that “the soaring inflation in the last six months has caused the loss of about P933 to P2,715 in the income of each of some 60 million Filipinos.
“The inflation rate rose to 5.7 percent in July, the highest and fastest in five years. It was mainly pushed by price spikes in fuel, food, and transportation, with food prices registering a year-on-year increase at 7.1 percent,” he noted.
Casilao accused the Duterte administration of “making it appear that the 5.7 percent inflation in July was triggered more by supply problems, not by its economic policies.”
“It is mere hair-splitting if not outright lying,” he said.
Casilao said that “aside from implementing the TRAIN, preserving other anti-people measures like the Oil Deregulation Law also sustained the spike of prices of basic goods and services since oil is used in almost all the stages of production and bringing the goods to the market.”
He cited the recent P1 hike on jeepney fare from P8 to P9 due to the series of oil price hikes.
“The P1 hike translates to 12 percent increase which is double of the projected inflation rate for the month of July of 5.7 percent,” he said.
“Also, the price of rice in the market kept on rising, despite the influx of imported rice. For six straight months in 2018, rice prices went up by P2.53 from P37.83 to P40.36 for regular milled rice and by P1.61 from P42.58 to P44.19 for well milled rice,” he noted.
“It is the height of insensitivity that amid all these impacts of TRAIN on ordinary Filipinos, the Duterte administration stubbornly pursues its economic policies,” he also said.
He noted that in the House’s last hearing, the sponsors of the TRAIN bill have renamed it Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-Quality Opportunities (TRABAHO).
“It is a shameless attempt to deodorize the stink of TRAIN. But no amount of name-changing can deodorize the fact that while big corporations will enjoy incentives for two years on top of lowered corporate tax, ordinary Juan Dela Cruz will continue paying more on a daily basis because of higher food prices sustained by anti- people policies,” Casilao said.
